Representatives from Wells Fargo reported the Board of Visitors’ assets as of Oct. 31 during the Committee on Financial Affairs meeting on Nov. 21. For current exposure in millions, the BOV investment portfolio is made of $44.6 million in equity, $26 million in fixed income and $6.1 million in alternatives, totaling $76.7 million.
Managing Director Joseph Montgomery and Vice President of Investments Robin Wilcox, who took the BOV through its stock portfolio, led the presentation.
“We’re coming off a very strong fiscal year end for 2013 at 13.05 percent, relative to the benchmark 11.7 percent, so we’re happy to report the BOV is well above the national average,” Wilcox said.
The BOV also received information about the College of William and Mary’s finances prior to the meeting. The operating budget for revenue 2013-14 is $324,719,330. As of Sept. 30, $150,029,004 of that has been spent. The 2013-14 operating budget for expenditures is $325,116,686. As of Sept. 30, $109,280,206 has been spent.
Vice President of Finance Sam Jones addressed the BOV for the majority of the session. He reported the state budget outlook with information from the Virginia State Budget Appropriations Committee.
Currently, the state senate is projecting revenue growth from 3.8 to 4.2 percent and a $17.1 billion budget as a baseline of expenditures. In terms of revenue growth, Jones said state senators are predicting there will be some residual money.
“It really reinforces the action you took back in April with the William and Mary Promise,” Jones said. “It says ‘Look, we’re going to create some of the resources that we need to move the university forward.’ The state’s going to do what it can, but it’s not going to be the solution or the be-all [and] end-all of what we’re trying to do.”
Despite that, the College will have some additional funds this year, according to Jones.
“What we see is, because of the additional revenue — not the carry over balances, but the additional revenue from last year — we really only have to have revenue growth of one percent,” Jones said. “Things should look good for this year.”
The BOV received drafts of Resolution 8, Receipt of the Consolidated Financial Report for the College and Richard Bland College for fiscal year 2012-13, and Resolution 9, Receipt of the Financial Report of the Intercollegiate Athletic Department for fiscal year 2012-13. The committee will be asked to approve the receipts in the spring.
Additionally, Jones presented a peer comparison for the sticker price of tuition and fees of other universities. The College charges the most for Virginia public undergraduate in-state tuition and fees. Last year, VIMS took the top spot, but with the William and Mary Promise, tuition increased 14 percent for the freshman class.
For out-of-state undergraduate tuition and fees, the University of Virginia charges the most, the College coming in second. Jones said this gap grew in 2013 because the College slowed the rate of out-of-state tuition growth.
Comparing national public law schools, the College charges one of the lowest tuition rates for in-state and out-of-state students.
Rector Todd Stottlemyer ’85 recently met with the Board of Visitors at U.Va., saying the board at U.Va. is “deeply divided” on tuition.
College President Taylor Reveley has spoken with U.Va.’s president about this issue.
“I think probably what they’ll end up doing, through a much more complex process than we, [is] charge more for the second two years in a four year program,” Reveley said. “Something that won’t look like what we did because, of course, that would be unthinkable.”